Setting up SSL with Apache2

Once the server is installed you need to do three things to get a working SSL setup:

• Generate, or import, a certificate.
• Enable Apaches SSL support.
• Configure your SSL options.

Generate self-signed certificate

To create the self-signed certificate, run the following command

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

The above command will prompt you to enter the passphrase. Once you enter the correct passphrase, your certificate will be created and it will be stored in the server.crt file

Installing the Certificate

You can install the key file server.key and certificate file server.crt, or the certificate file issued by your CA, by running following commands

sudo cp server.crt /etc/ssl/certs
sudo cp server.key /etc/ssl/private

Enabling SSL Support

To use the SSL facilities of Apache2 you must enable the module mod_ssl

a2enmod ssl

Create a SSL conf. file (if needed) and establish a necessary symlink.

If you do not have SSL conf file (/etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl) need to copy the 'default' conf as a stub for the 'default-ssl' conf.

cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl

Next, establish a symlink from the 'available' default-ssl file to the 'enabled' file.

ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default-ssl 

Instruct Apache to listen to 443

Change the port address in /etc/apache2/ports.conf by default it will listen port 80 and now we are installing with SSL we need to change port 443 to listen

 Listen 443

Your ports.conf may already have an IfModule clause in it for the SSL portion. If you see this, you can just leave it as-is:

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    Listen 443
</IfModule>

With these two steps out of the way you now have an Apache setup which will listen for and accept SSL connections. The next step is to modify your virtualhosts to use it.

Configuring your SSL Hosts

The final step is to ensure that your virtual hosts, or main host, will accept SSL options

Configure HTTPS over port 443 (edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl):

NameVirtualHost *:443
(Note: Look down just a bit and make a change to the virtual host settings.)
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www-ssl/html/
(Note: Again, use your assigned IP or a DNS name followed with ":443" if you have one for ServerName.) 

Turn on the SSL engine.

Make sure the following are in your default-ssl file. The SSLengine should be on, and the cert and key should be properly pathed:

SSLEngine On
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.key